Relatives can not find the 25-year-old artist, who was forbidden to perform in Chechnya, for more than a week. According to one inference, his disappearance is related to the name of State Duma deputy Adam Delimkhanov.⁠

The well-known Chechen singer Zelimkhan Bakaev disappeared in Grozny during a visit to the wedding of his sister from Moscow, where he has recently lived, Kavkaz-Realii reports.

The singer stopped getting in touch on August 8, but his disappearance became known only today from the representative of the singer's family. According to him, Zelimkhan went out on August 8 on business and never returned. The police, which the relatives turned to, could report nothing about him.

Two friends of Bakaev on condition of anonymity told Dozhd TV Channel that on August 8, Bakaev had been detained in the center of Grozny by people in military uniform, allegedly by Special Rapid Deployment fighters of Terek. However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Grozny did not confirm this information, saying that there had been no statements about a person with such a name going missing.

One of the sources of Dozhd also clarified that a few days ago Bakaev had written to his mother and aunt through WhatsApp that he was alive and well and planned to go abroad. However, immediately after that he left the messenger and turned off the phone. The friend of the singer doubts that Bakaev wrote the message himself, since the singer was not going abroad, building a musical career in Moscow, and technically could not fly out because of loans.

Meanwhile, on August 15, in one of the accounts of the singer in Instagram, a post appeared with hashtags: #zelimbakaev and #sushi, however, according to his friend, the page does not belong to Zelimkhan, his real account was closed immediately after the detention, and the photo posted in the social network was made in Grozny restaurant Fish House a year ago and not in summer, as in the picture the singer has a leather jacket.

The last time the artist contacted his manager Leila Vakhaeva was on August 6. On August 10, Bakaev's brother got in touch with her, who told that Zelimkhan had left home because of the conflict. Vakhaeva noted that during his stay in Chechnya the singer had panic attacks.

An anonymous source in one of the Chechen human rights organizations surmised that a high-ranking official from the administration of Ramzan Kadyrov is involved in the disappearance of the singer. According to unconfirmed information, the disappearance of Bakaev is associated with the name of State Duma deputy from Chechnya Adam Delimkhanov.

According to the singer’s manager, Zelimkhan Bakaev’s musical career went sour in his homeland – he did not have a permanent producer, and he could not perform in Chechnya, since he was not a member of the Chechen philharmonic society. Zelimkhan Bakaev (stage name Zelim Bakaev) sings mostly in Chechen, giving concerts in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Moscow.

In Moscow, Bakaev tried to partake in the project New Star Factory on MUZ-TV TV Channel, participated in contests, practiced vocals and worked helping financially his mother. The singer's friends say that Bakaev was banned from performing in Chechnya, "because his music is too different from the one that is understood in the republic".

Earlier Novaya Gazeta and several other media have repeatedly reported about illegal detentions followed by detainment in secret prisons and extrajudicial executions of detainees of unconventional sexual orientation, or simply suspects in it in the Chechen Republic. The authorities of Chechnya deny all accusations, calling messages in the media slander for the purpose of provocation.